To properly perform invasive surgical procedures, it is often necessary to retract skin, muscle and other body tissue surrounding the surgical incision to allow the surgeon a clear view of the area to be operated on and room to use the required surgical tools.
Hand retractors are commonly employed for this purpose, typically handled by an assistant. An end of the hand retractor is inserted in the incision and moved to retract the desired tissue. However, hand retractors are often unwieldy, require frequent attention and tie up one or more hands of the assistant. Even if further assistants are available to the surgeon, the presence of too many personnel tends to crowd the surgical area.
Surgical retractors, usually including a basic frame with one or more retractors clamped thereto, are sometimes employed to alleviate the need for hand retractors and the corresponding dedicated personnel. However, such surgical retractors are often bulky, impeding access to the surgical incision, and frequently offer limited options concerning the manner in which retraction of the body around the incision is accomplished.
One example of an attempt to improve the utility of a surgical retractor can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 1,400,616, in which an abdominal retractor has a frame contoured to fit a patient's body. A plurality of holes extend through the frame. Threaded stems with retraction fingers on an end thereof can be inserted through any of the holes. The holes are all oriented normal to the corresponding sections of the frame, resulting in limited options for the direction in which the body can be retracted around an incision. Additionally, the threaded stems require time-consuming screwing and unscrewing of a nut to secure the stems in a desired position.
Another example can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,799, in which a surgical retractor has a plurality of support arms with retractor blades on ends thereof that can extend from respective portions of a frame at a variable angle. While the '799 patent offers increased options for body retraction around an incision, substantially increased bulk and complexity of equipment is required in exchange.
A further example can be seen in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0242969 in which a surgical retractor has retractor blades that are adjustable using a ratchet and pawl system. While the ratchet and pawl system allows for quicker operation relative to the threaded stems of the '616 patent, the ratchet and pawl system also adds substantially to the overall bulk of the surgical retractor.
Additionally, while some surgical retractors offer basic contouring of the frame for areas such as the back or abdomen, surgical retractors shaped or contoured for more complex geometries are lacking.